WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.820 You know, usually when we walk into a museum, 00:00:02.120 --> 00:00:06.459 we expect this very, very clear division of time 00:00:06.459 --> 00:00:09.339 and space. Right. Yeah. Like the eras are separated. 00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:12.560 Exactly. The contemporary art is in that like 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:15.640 bright, airy new wing. And then the historical 00:00:15.640 --> 00:00:18.899 artifacts are kept safely behind thick glass 00:00:18.899 --> 00:00:21.359 down in the dimly lit basement somewhere. Right. 00:00:21.500 --> 00:00:23.839 We really expect things to be neatly categorized. 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:25.640 Yeah. You don't just walk into the lobby and 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:28.839 see a brand new wildly abstract sculpture sitting 00:00:28.839 --> 00:00:31.179 on the exact same pedestal as a, I don't know, 00:00:31.300 --> 00:00:33.679 a 50 -year -old restored artifact? No, definitely 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:35.460 not. And with the artist standing right there 00:00:35.460 --> 00:00:36.979 telling you you have to look at both of them 00:00:36.979 --> 00:00:39.299 simultaneously to understand either one. Right, 00:00:39.299 --> 00:00:42.359 because it just completely shatters that comfortable 00:00:42.359 --> 00:00:45.439 linear timeline that we like to rely on. Yeah. 00:00:45.659 --> 00:00:48.079 Viewing art or history that way, it forces you 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:51.179 to see the active, ongoing conversation happening 00:00:51.179 --> 00:00:54.119 between completely different eras. And that beautifully 00:00:54.119 --> 00:00:58.420 complicated sort of era landscape is the exact 00:00:58.420 --> 00:01:01.179 territory we are exploring today. We're doing 00:01:01.179 --> 00:01:04.159 a deep dive into Joe Lovano's 2006 jazz album, 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:06.840 Streams of Expression. It's such a perfect example 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:09.040 of this. It really is. We're looking at this 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:11.519 because it's a fascinating case study in how 00:01:11.519 --> 00:01:14.340 creative masters balance honoring the history 00:01:14.340 --> 00:01:18.409 of their field with forging their own completely 00:01:18.409 --> 00:01:20.909 new path. Yeah, I mean, we are really looking 00:01:20.909 --> 00:01:23.750 at a master class in synthesis here. For you 00:01:23.750 --> 00:01:25.489 listening, if you're trying to understand why 00:01:25.489 --> 00:01:27.510 certain artistic or professional choices are 00:01:27.510 --> 00:01:30.489 made and how someone takes multiple eras of complex 00:01:30.489 --> 00:01:32.769 information and turns them into one cohesive 00:01:32.769 --> 00:01:36.170 statement, this album is basically the blueprint. 00:01:36.329 --> 00:01:39.010 To set the scene a bit. Reaching your 20th studio 00:01:39.010 --> 00:01:41.549 album on a legendary label like Blue Note. That 00:01:41.549 --> 00:01:44.030 is a milestone that very few artists ever see. 00:01:44.269 --> 00:01:46.810 Oh, absolutely. It's rare air. Right. And Lovano 00:01:46.810 --> 00:01:49.230 used that platform to deliver this sprawling 00:01:49.230 --> 00:01:52.890 epic that clocks in at, let me check, one hour. 00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:56.859 13 minutes and 54 seconds. It's massive. So, 00:01:56.859 --> 00:01:58.719 okay, let's unpack this. We're going to examine 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:01.000 the ambitious architecture of this album, the 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:03.579 deeply historical roots it relies on, the completely 00:02:03.579 --> 00:02:06.239 divided critical reception it provoked, and the 00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:08.759 massive web of jazz history brought into the 00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:12.180 studio by the personnel. And honestly, the timeline 00:02:12.180 --> 00:02:14.719 of the album's creation is the first indicator 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:17.120 of just how ambitious this project actually is. 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:19.960 Oh, definitely. The sheer physical reality of 00:02:19.960 --> 00:02:22.699 building this record provides the context for 00:02:22.879 --> 00:02:25.159 pretty much everything else we are going to discuss. 00:02:25.300 --> 00:02:27.740 Yeah, because the recording process here is a 00:02:27.740 --> 00:02:29.979 massive departure from how most modern music 00:02:29.979 --> 00:02:33.139 is made. Right. This entire hour plus of complex 00:02:33.139 --> 00:02:36.340 music was recorded over just two days, December 00:02:36.340 --> 00:02:40.439 13th and 14th, 2005, at Avatar Studios in New 00:02:40.439 --> 00:02:43.400 York City. Which is wild to think about. I mean, 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:47.060 producing over 73 minutes of finalized, intricately 00:02:47.060 --> 00:02:50.199 arranged music in 48 hours That requires an intense 00:02:50.199 --> 00:02:52.759 logistical and artistic sprint. It really does 00:02:52.759 --> 00:02:54.379 because, you know, in a lot of modern recording, 00:02:54.580 --> 00:02:57.319 even back in 2005, artists had the luxury of 00:02:57.319 --> 00:02:59.180 tracking instruments one by one. Right. Using 00:02:59.180 --> 00:03:01.139 isolation booths and all that. Exactly. Spending 00:03:01.139 --> 00:03:04.300 weeks editing or fixing mistakes digitally. But 00:03:04.300 --> 00:03:06.960 tackling a massive acoustic ensemble project 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:09.759 in two days means you are recording live in the 00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:12.590 room. Just everyone together. Yeah. It requires 00:03:12.590 --> 00:03:15.909 immense level of fluency from every single musician 00:03:15.909 --> 00:03:18.870 involved. The technical proficiency has to be 00:03:18.870 --> 00:03:21.030 so deeply ingrained that they don't even have 00:03:21.030 --> 00:03:23.250 to think about the notes. They just play. Right. 00:03:23.250 --> 00:03:24.969 They only have to think about the expression. 00:03:25.550 --> 00:03:28.689 Deep, rigorous preparation is literally the only 00:03:28.689 --> 00:03:31.629 thing that allows for that kind of spontaneous 00:03:31.629 --> 00:03:34.770 fluid execution under that much pressure. And 00:03:34.770 --> 00:03:36.750 the track list reveals just how much structure 00:03:36.750 --> 00:03:39.569 they had to navigate in those two days. The album 00:03:39.569 --> 00:03:42.759 rests on basically three distinct structural 00:03:42.759 --> 00:03:44.840 pillars. Right, the architecture. Yeah, so the 00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:47.939 first pillar is the completely original five 00:03:47.939 --> 00:03:50.800 -part streams of expression suite. Which is just 00:03:50.800 --> 00:03:53.379 incredible on its own. Yeah, this features movements 00:03:53.379 --> 00:03:57.219 titled streams, cool, enchantment, second nature, 00:03:57.780 --> 00:04:00.319 and the fire prophets. And that is really the 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:02.099 forward -looking component of the record. It 00:04:02.099 --> 00:04:05.300 is a newly commissioned work operating as a continuous 00:04:05.300 --> 00:04:07.719 thematic narrative rather than just, you know, 00:04:07.900 --> 00:04:09.680 five random songs placed next to each other. 00:04:09.879 --> 00:04:11.800 Right. Then the second pillar is a three -part 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:14.560 suite dedicated entirely to the birth of the 00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:17.480 cool. The historical anchor. Exactly. And surrounding 00:04:17.480 --> 00:04:20.699 those two massive suites, the third pillar consists 00:04:20.699 --> 00:04:23.500 of three standalone works. You've got blue sketches. 00:04:23.819 --> 00:04:27.860 Big Ben and a track called Buckeyes. Oh, Buckeyes 00:04:27.860 --> 00:04:30.680 is a beast. Yeah, it actually takes up a massive 00:04:30.680 --> 00:04:32.500 piece of real estate on its own. It comes in 00:04:32.500 --> 00:04:35.079 at nine and a half minutes, making the longest 00:04:35.079 --> 00:04:37.839 individual track on the whole album. Which brings 00:04:37.839 --> 00:04:40.279 us right back to that architecture of museum 00:04:40.279 --> 00:04:43.720 analogy. It is a highly deliberate layout. Right. 00:04:43.839 --> 00:04:46.139 You have the wing dedicated to newly commissioned 00:04:46.139 --> 00:04:48.959 modern art, which is Lovano's original five part 00:04:48.959 --> 00:04:51.379 suite. Yeah. Then you walk down the hall into 00:04:51.379 --> 00:04:53.759 the historical wing, displaying the carefully 00:04:53.759 --> 00:04:55.959 restored artifacts. That's the birth of the cool 00:04:55.959 --> 00:04:58.180 suite. Beautifully put. And scattered around 00:04:58.180 --> 00:05:00.160 the lobby to sort of tie the whole building together. 00:05:00.500 --> 00:05:02.990 You have those standalone sculptures. the shorter 00:05:02.990 --> 00:05:05.410 tracks like Blue Sketches and Buckeyes. And moving 00:05:05.410 --> 00:05:08.209 from that modern art wing into the historical 00:05:08.209 --> 00:05:11.290 wing is where the project takes a major philosophical 00:05:11.290 --> 00:05:14.569 risk. How so? Well, dedicating a massive chunk 00:05:14.569 --> 00:05:17.449 of a 20th anniversary milestone album to another 00:05:17.449 --> 00:05:20.790 artist's past is just a really unexpected structural 00:05:20.790 --> 00:05:23.170 choice. Yeah, let's examine that historical wing 00:05:23.170 --> 00:05:27.490 because the birth of the cool suite utilizes 00:05:27.490 --> 00:05:30.629 melodic themes inspired directly by Miles Davis's 00:05:30.629 --> 00:05:35.050 iconic 1948 and 1950 nonet. Right. The tracks 00:05:35.050 --> 00:05:37.550 are arranged as these dense medleys. You have 00:05:37.550 --> 00:05:40.389 Prelude Moon Dreams, then a massive eight -minute 00:05:40.389 --> 00:05:42.810 block of interlude number one, move interlude 00:05:42.810 --> 00:05:46.439 number two, and finally, publicity parslew. Such 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:48.660 heavy arrangements. And the sources also note 00:05:48.660 --> 00:05:51.560 a crucial detail here. This specific suite was 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:54.279 conducted by Gunther Schuller. Which is huge. 00:05:54.540 --> 00:05:58.180 A nonet is a nine -piece band, and it is a notoriously 00:05:58.180 --> 00:06:00.879 difficult format to write and arrange for. I 00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:03.240 can imagine. Yeah, with nine pieces, usually 00:06:03.240 --> 00:06:05.160 a rhythm section paired with a heavy layered 00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:07.860 horn section like French horns and tubas. You 00:06:07.860 --> 00:06:10.399 are trying to harness the dense sweeping power 00:06:10.399 --> 00:06:12.560 of a full orchestra. But with way fewer people. 00:06:12.680 --> 00:06:14.769 Exactly. But you still have to maintain the agility 00:06:14.769 --> 00:06:17.649 and the improvisational freedom of a small jazz 00:06:17.649 --> 00:06:20.189 club combo. It is a really precarious balancing 00:06:20.189 --> 00:06:22.110 act. OK, I have to challenge the overarching 00:06:22.110 --> 00:06:24.149 premise of this choice, though. Go for it. If 00:06:24.149 --> 00:06:26.529 Joe Lovano is celebrating his 20th album for 00:06:26.529 --> 00:06:28.810 Blue Note, a moment that really should be the 00:06:28.810 --> 00:06:31.089 ultimate showcase of his own singular voice, 00:06:31.689 --> 00:06:34.509 why hand over a massive percentage of the runtime 00:06:34.509 --> 00:06:37.129 to someone else's 50 -year -old music? That's 00:06:37.129 --> 00:06:40.009 the big question. Right. From a listener's perspective, 00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:44.240 playing classic Miles Davis coons in 2006 feels 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:47.959 almost like a commercial safety net. It guarantees 00:06:47.959 --> 00:06:50.399 a certain level of built -in audience familiarity. 00:06:51.540 --> 00:06:54.399 Doesn't that risk turning a milestone solo project 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:58.180 into just a high -end tribute act? That's a fair 00:06:58.180 --> 00:07:00.279 point, but the involvement of Gunther Schuller 00:07:00.279 --> 00:07:02.620 is actually the mechanism that prevents this 00:07:02.620 --> 00:07:04.740 from becoming a tribute act. Really? How so? 00:07:04.839 --> 00:07:07.079 Well, having a conductor in a jazz session is 00:07:07.079 --> 00:07:10.279 an anomaly. Jazz is largely built on nonverbal 00:07:10.279 --> 00:07:12.279 communication. Right, like a nod or eye contact. 00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:14.500 Yeah, a breath, eye contact across the room. 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:17.040 Bringing in a conductor means the music is so 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:19.920 architecturally demanding, so densely layered, 00:07:20.279 --> 00:07:23.120 that the ensemble literally requires a focal 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:25.699 point to navigate the score. Oh, wow. I hadn't 00:07:25.699 --> 00:07:27.829 thought about it like that. Yeah, Shuler's presence 00:07:27.829 --> 00:07:29.990 signals that this is a rigorous intellectual 00:07:29.990 --> 00:07:33.149 inquiry, not just a casual walk down memory lane. 00:07:33.829 --> 00:07:36.189 Livano is demonstrating that reaching a level 00:07:36.189 --> 00:07:39.189 of mastery doesn't mean you graduate out of the 00:07:39.189 --> 00:07:41.209 history. You don't just leave it behind. No, 00:07:41.209 --> 00:07:44.350 you enter into a more complex, active conversation 00:07:44.350 --> 00:07:46.889 with it. He is taking the foundational texts 00:07:46.889 --> 00:07:49.470 of the genre and proving he can integrate them 00:07:49.470 --> 00:07:52.649 seamlessly into his own contemporary vision. 00:07:53.009 --> 00:07:55.149 But taking that kind of historical risk in a 00:07:55.149 --> 00:07:58.079 modern studio and environment, is exactly what 00:07:58.079 --> 00:07:59.959 fractured the critical response when the album 00:07:59.959 --> 00:08:02.139 was released. Oh, completely. The sources give 00:08:02.139 --> 00:08:05.180 us two very distinct, almost contradictory perspectives 00:08:05.180 --> 00:08:07.439 on whether this experiment actually worked. And, 00:08:07.540 --> 00:08:09.620 you know, a deep split in critical reception 00:08:09.620 --> 00:08:12.199 usually indicates that a piece of art is challenging 00:08:12.199 --> 00:08:14.660 the standard rubrics we use to evaluate media. 00:08:14.860 --> 00:08:16.839 Yeah, so on one side we have Steve Greenlee writing 00:08:16.839 --> 00:08:19.879 for Jazz Times. He approached the album with 00:08:19.879 --> 00:08:22.439 a fair amount of skepticism, calling it a sequel 00:08:22.439 --> 00:08:25.819 to Lovano's 1995 album, Rush Hour. Which is kind 00:08:25.819 --> 00:08:28.819 of a backhanded compliment. Yeah. Greenlee noted 00:08:28.819 --> 00:08:32.399 that the music is interesting enough, particularly 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:35.080 when Lovano is taking his own solos. Right. but 00:08:35.080 --> 00:08:37.799 he was incredibly blunt about its lifespan, stating 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:39.960 that this is not a disc that will find itself 00:08:39.960 --> 00:08:43.659 in his CD changer often. Ouch. Yeah, in his view, 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:46.159 Lovano's original suite constituted the much 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:48.539 better portion of the album, and the historical 00:08:48.539 --> 00:08:51.120 explorations basically dragged the project down. 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:53.259 Well, Greenlee is evaluating the album through 00:08:53.259 --> 00:08:56.620 the lens of pure utility and replayability. Right. 00:08:56.940 --> 00:09:00.299 The CD changer test is all about immediate gratification. 00:09:01.059 --> 00:09:03.799 He is looking for the visceral thrill of a modern 00:09:03.799 --> 00:09:06.659 jazz solo. He wants the bright lights of the 00:09:06.659 --> 00:09:09.059 modern art wing, and he finds the historical 00:09:09.059 --> 00:09:12.379 museum tour tedious. Contrast that, though, with 00:09:12.379 --> 00:09:14.860 John Fordham's review in The Guardian. Fordham 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:17.379 was a massive champion of the album. Total opposite 00:09:17.379 --> 00:09:19.620 reaction. Yeah, he specifically focused on the 00:09:19.620 --> 00:09:22.279 historical suites, stating that Lovano and Shuler 00:09:22.279 --> 00:09:24.679 managed to avoid simply polishing the glossy 00:09:24.679 --> 00:09:27.360 surfaces of legacy jazz. That's such a great 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:30.259 phrase. It is. Fordham argued that instead of 00:09:30.259 --> 00:09:32.740 creating a static homage, the ensemble looked 00:09:32.740 --> 00:09:36.500 backward to the genre's pre -bop roots and simultaneously 00:09:36.500 --> 00:09:39.019 looked forward to the free jazz that those roots 00:09:39.019 --> 00:09:41.580 eventually helped release. And polishing the 00:09:41.580 --> 00:09:43.980 glossy surfaces is a brilliant way to describe 00:09:43.820 --> 00:09:46.740 the danger of nostalgia. Oh, definitely. Nostalgia 00:09:46.740 --> 00:09:49.659 tends to buff out the rough, radical edges of 00:09:49.659 --> 00:09:52.039 history to make it more palatable for modern 00:09:52.039 --> 00:09:55.539 audiences. Fordham is arguing that Lovano retained 00:09:55.539 --> 00:09:57.580 the friction of the original music. Right. He 00:09:57.580 --> 00:10:00.500 kept the grit. Exactly. And to understand Fordham's 00:10:00.500 --> 00:10:02.559 praise, we really have to define those two eras 00:10:02.559 --> 00:10:05.539 he mentions, pre bop and free jazz. Let's do 00:10:05.539 --> 00:10:08.620 it. So pre bop refers to the highly arranged, 00:10:09.019 --> 00:10:11.139 structured, often danceable music of the big 00:10:11.139 --> 00:10:13.320 band era before musicians like Charlie Charlie 00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:16.059 Parker shattered all the rules with bebop. And 00:10:16.059 --> 00:10:18.200 then free jazz is the complete opposite end of 00:10:18.200 --> 00:10:20.639 the spectrum. It is the avant -garde movement 00:10:20.639 --> 00:10:23.580 of the 1960s that tore down traditional chordal 00:10:23.580 --> 00:10:26.480 structures in favor of pure unbound emotional 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:28.950 expression. So what does this all mean? How can 00:10:28.950 --> 00:10:31.330 an album simultaneously look backward to rigid, 00:10:31.529 --> 00:10:34.210 arranged structures and forward to unbound chaos? 00:10:34.470 --> 00:10:37.149 It's a paradox, right? It is. And more importantly, 00:10:37.490 --> 00:10:39.610 how can two professional critics listen to the 00:10:39.610 --> 00:10:43.250 exact same 73 minutes of music and walk away 00:10:43.250 --> 00:10:45.610 with such drastically different valuations of 00:10:45.610 --> 00:10:47.409 its worth? I think it really comes down to what 00:10:47.409 --> 00:10:50.450 we expect from the media we consume. Greenlee 00:10:50.450 --> 00:10:53.070 values the immediate personal expression of the 00:10:53.070 --> 00:10:56.490 soloist. Fordham values historical synthesis. 00:10:57.110 --> 00:10:59.559 Fordham is listening for the architectural connections 00:10:59.559 --> 00:11:01.700 between eras. So they're just measuring different 00:11:01.700 --> 00:11:05.259 things entirely. Exactly. And being truly well 00:11:05.259 --> 00:11:07.259 -informed requires holding both of these perspectives 00:11:07.259 --> 00:11:10.539 at the same time. An album can be a brilliant, 00:11:10.860 --> 00:11:13.159 academically rigorous piece of historical synthesis, 00:11:13.399 --> 00:11:15.740 and it can also be something that requires too 00:11:15.740 --> 00:11:18.500 much mental bandwidth to put on repeat in your 00:11:18.500 --> 00:11:20.860 car during a commute. That makes a lot of sense. 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:23.559 But, you know, to successfully execute the kind 00:11:23.559 --> 00:11:25.700 of historical synthesis Fordham is talking about, 00:11:26.039 --> 00:11:28.519 to build a bridge between the rigid arrangements 00:11:28.519 --> 00:11:31.960 of pre bop and the wild frontiers of free jazz, 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:34.879 you cannot rely on standard studio session players. 00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:37.590 Oh, absolutely not. You need a brain trust. You 00:11:37.590 --> 00:11:40.370 need musicians whose own lived experiences map 00:11:40.370 --> 00:11:42.950 the exact history of the genre you're trying 00:11:42.950 --> 00:11:45.350 to explore. Because an ambitious concept falls 00:11:45.350 --> 00:11:47.769 apart if the personnel in the room don't possess 00:11:47.769 --> 00:11:50.529 the vocabulary to actually articulate it, you 00:11:50.529 --> 00:11:53.120 need an ensemble that basically embodies the 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:55.580 timeline. And Lovano assembled a massive roster 00:11:55.580 --> 00:11:58.799 to achieve this. Alongside Lovano on alto clarinet 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:02.100 and tenor sax, and Schuller conducting, the ensemble 00:12:02.100 --> 00:12:05.299 features George Garzone and Ralph Lollema also 00:12:05.299 --> 00:12:07.559 on tenor sax. Heavy hitters. Right. You have 00:12:07.559 --> 00:12:10.460 Gary Smullian on baritone sax, Tim Hagens and 00:12:10.460 --> 00:12:12.960 Barry Reisz on trumpet, Lewis Nash on drums, 00:12:13.399 --> 00:12:16.179 and Dennis Erwin on bass. Such a great lineup. 00:12:16.559 --> 00:12:18.240 But the source material provides an incredibly 00:12:18.240 --> 00:12:20.779 detailed look at one specific member of this 00:12:20.779 --> 00:12:24.200 brain truck. the pianist John Hicks. Yes, John 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:26.379 Hicks serves as the perfect case study for how 00:12:26.379 --> 00:12:29.220 an artist's unseen resume shapes the final product 00:12:29.220 --> 00:12:31.480 of a collaborative environment. When you examine 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:34.159 John Hicks' discography, the sheer weight of 00:12:34.159 --> 00:12:36.659 his experience is staggering. It really is. He 00:12:36.659 --> 00:12:39.580 was recording as a bandleader as early as 1975 00:12:39.580 --> 00:12:42.039 with albums like Hell's Bells and Steadfast, 00:12:42.580 --> 00:12:45.620 but it is his collaborative wingspan that reveals 00:12:45.620 --> 00:12:48.740 his true value to a session like this. Oh, for 00:12:48.740 --> 00:12:51.509 sure. In the 1960s and 70s, he was playing with 00:12:51.509 --> 00:12:53.809 Art Blakey in the Jazz Messengers, appearing 00:12:53.809 --> 00:12:57.350 on albums like A Smake It in 1964, and Child's 00:12:57.350 --> 00:13:00.570 Dance in 1972. And playing with Art Blakey anchors 00:13:00.570 --> 00:13:03.629 a musician firmly in the hard bop tradition. 00:13:03.850 --> 00:13:06.210 Right, which is what exactly. Hard bop is defined 00:13:06.210 --> 00:13:10.509 by heavy, driving, blues -drenched rhythms. It 00:13:10.509 --> 00:13:13.230 is sweat on the cymbals music. I love that description. 00:13:13.429 --> 00:13:16.509 Yeah. For a pianist like Hicks, playing in the 00:13:16.509 --> 00:13:19.039 Jazz Messengers meant learning how to highly 00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:21.580 percussive anchoring chords that could cut through 00:13:21.580 --> 00:13:23.700 a really dense rhythm section. So you really 00:13:23.700 --> 00:13:25.799 had to hit those keys. Exactly. It requires a 00:13:25.799 --> 00:13:28.279 very specific aggressive physical approach to 00:13:28.279 --> 00:13:30.100 the keyboard. Okay, so you take that aggressive 00:13:30.100 --> 00:13:31.899 driving foundation and then you look further 00:13:31.899 --> 00:13:34.980 down his resume. Yeah. By the late 70s and 80s, 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:36.860 Hicks is playing with Pharaoh Sanders on albums 00:13:36.860 --> 00:13:40.299 like Journey to the One in 1979 and Rejoice in 00:13:40.299 --> 00:13:43.500 Africa in the early 80s. Which requires an entirely 00:13:43.500 --> 00:13:46.159 different musical vocabulary. Really? How is 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:48.710 it different? Well, Farrah Sanders is a pioneer 00:13:48.710 --> 00:13:52.970 of spiritual jazz. This is expansive meditative 00:13:52.970 --> 00:13:56.009 music that pushes deep into avant -garde tonal 00:13:56.009 --> 00:13:58.149 boundaries. Oh, wow. Instead of punching out 00:13:58.149 --> 00:14:01.690 heavy rhythmic chords, a pianist playing spiritual 00:14:01.690 --> 00:14:05.289 jazz has to create floating impressionistic textures. 00:14:05.830 --> 00:14:08.009 They are playing outside the traditional chord 00:14:08.009 --> 00:14:10.490 changes to create a mood rather than just a beat. 00:14:10.970 --> 00:14:13.809 That is a massive shift, and the timeline keeps 00:14:13.809 --> 00:14:16.250 expanding. Throughout the 80s and 90s, Hicks 00:14:16.250 --> 00:14:18.730 recorded extensively with David Murray on albums 00:14:18.730 --> 00:14:21.950 like Sketches of Tokyo, Ming Samba, and Fast 00:14:21.950 --> 00:14:24.830 Life. He played with Betty Carter, Chico Freeman, 00:14:25.049 --> 00:14:27.750 and Roy Hargrove. His output from the mid -70s 00:14:27.750 --> 00:14:29.850 straight through the early 2000s is essentially 00:14:29.850 --> 00:14:32.919 a living map of modern jazz evolution. And this 00:14:32.919 --> 00:14:35.139 is the critical mechanism behind how Livano's 00:14:35.139 --> 00:14:38.019 album was recorded in just 48 hours. The muscle 00:14:38.019 --> 00:14:40.940 memory. Exactly. When John Hicks sits down at 00:14:40.940 --> 00:14:43.460 the piano at Avatar Studios in December 2005, 00:14:43.679 --> 00:14:46.200 he's not just reading notes off a piece of sheet 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:48.700 music. He is filtering those notes through 40 00:14:48.700 --> 00:14:51.220 years of muscle memory. He brings the percussive 00:14:51.220 --> 00:14:54.379 drive he learned from Art Blakey and the expansive 00:14:54.379 --> 00:14:56.720 avant -garde textures he explored with Pharaoh 00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:59.399 Sanders directly into Livano's streams of expression. 00:15:00.220 --> 00:15:03.399 Every chord voicing he chooses is informed by 00:15:03.399 --> 00:15:06.139 decades of living at the absolute cutting edge 00:15:06.139 --> 00:15:09.860 of the art form. He is basically a walking, breathing, 00:15:09.980 --> 00:15:12.120 historical wing of the museum. That's a great 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:14.879 way to put it. When you fill a room with musicians 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:17.799 who possess resumes like John Hicks and Gunther 00:15:17.799 --> 00:15:20.500 Schuler, the fluency is already established. 00:15:21.139 --> 00:15:23.899 They don't need to spend weeks learning how to 00:15:23.899 --> 00:15:25.779 communicate with each other in the studio. Right. 00:15:26.100 --> 00:15:28.940 They only need to decide which specific conversation 00:15:28.940 --> 00:15:31.440 they're going to have over those two days. Because 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:34.279 in any collaborative field, the final output 00:15:34.279 --> 00:15:36.779 is always fundamentally shaped by the diverse, 00:15:37.139 --> 00:15:39.700 often completely unseen histories of everyone 00:15:39.700 --> 00:15:41.679 in the room. Yeah. You are never just getting 00:15:41.679 --> 00:15:44.340 their time for a 48 -hour session. You are getting 00:15:44.340 --> 00:15:46.480 the culmination of everywhere they have been 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:48.500 and every system they have ever worked within. 00:15:49.039 --> 00:15:52.139 So to wrap this up, Streams of Expression is 00:15:52.139 --> 00:15:54.019 far more than just a collection of tracks. It 00:15:54.019 --> 00:15:57.399 is a massive structural achievement that bridges 00:15:57.399 --> 00:16:00.139 the modern invention of Lovano's original suites 00:16:00.139 --> 00:16:03.440 with the foundational, highly arranged history 00:16:03.440 --> 00:16:07.399 of Miles Davis' nonet. It acts as a mirror for 00:16:07.399 --> 00:16:10.100 our own critical expectations, forcing us to 00:16:10.100 --> 00:16:13.659 ask whether we value immediate utility over deep 00:16:13.659 --> 00:16:16.759 historical synthesis. And it relies entirely 00:16:16.759 --> 00:16:20.159 on the deep lived lineage of titans like John 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:23.500 Hicks to execute that synthesis under the massive 00:16:23.500 --> 00:16:25.340 pressure of a two -day recording sprint. And 00:16:25.340 --> 00:16:28.259 for you listening right now, the underlying mechanics 00:16:28.259 --> 00:16:31.279 of this album extend far beyond music history. 00:16:31.399 --> 00:16:33.419 Yeah, how does this apply to, you know, our everyday 00:16:33.419 --> 00:16:36.220 lives? Well, whether you are prepping for a boardroom 00:16:36.220 --> 00:16:38.100 meeting, designing your product, or just trying 00:16:38.100 --> 00:16:41.019 to master a complex new skill, this album proves 00:16:41.019 --> 00:16:43.340 that true mastery does not mean ignoring what 00:16:43.340 --> 00:16:45.220 came before you just to prove how innovative 00:16:45.220 --> 00:16:48.539 you are. Right. deeply understand and actively 00:16:48.539 --> 00:16:50.379 converse with the foundational roots of your 00:16:50.379 --> 00:16:52.500 field. You have to understand the architecture 00:16:52.500 --> 00:16:55.720 of the past before you can confidently improvise 00:16:55.720 --> 00:16:58.360 and push your field into new territory. You really 00:16:58.360 --> 00:17:00.980 have to master the rules of the museum before 00:17:00.980 --> 00:17:03.820 you can build the new wing. Exactly. John Fordham 00:17:03.820 --> 00:17:06.099 pointed out that this album looked back at the 00:17:06.099 --> 00:17:09.420 rigid structures of pre bop specifically to see 00:17:09.420 --> 00:17:12.380 the wild unbound free jazz that it eventually 00:17:12.380 --> 00:17:15.119 helped release. Yeah. It suggests that history 00:17:15.119 --> 00:17:18.980 always holds the seeds of future rebellion. Which 00:17:18.980 --> 00:17:20.819 kind of leaves us with a fascinating thought. 00:17:21.400 --> 00:17:23.259 Decades from now, when future historians look 00:17:23.259 --> 00:17:25.440 back at the art, the business models, or the 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:27.839 technology being created by us today, what entirely 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:30.180 unpredictable future movements will they say 00:17:30.180 --> 00:17:32.579 our current streams of expression helped release?